Peak by Roland Smith
Allen and Unwin, 2007
(Age 11-15) Peak, named by his father, a mountaineer, is climbing. His
face freezes on the wall of ice and while he is working out how to
unstick his face without tearing his skin, a helicopter zooms in,
telling him to catch hold of the rope. The opening sequence is
stunning, as it tells the reader many of the quirky things about
climbing, and showcases some of the dangers. But all is not what you
think, Peak is actually doing something very illegal, he is climbing a
skyscraper in New York.
Once down, he is immediately taken to a Juvenile Detention Centre and
appears in court the next day. He is shocked by the anger of those
around him until he is told that a boy died trying to copy his style of
climbing buildings. As a result the judge is gong to send him back to
the centre until he is 18, but his father appears on the scene,
offering to take him out of the controversy, back to the Himalayas
where he works. And so Peak is set to climb Mt Everest. Peak's self
absorbed father is not interested in helping his son, but wants him to
be the youngest person ever to climb the mountain, thus ensuring the
survival of his flagging business.
I thought I would be bored by this story, but it took me in. The
American style of writing, of telling you about what people are
feeling, and having a lot of asides in parentheses, annoys me
intensely, but the story was so involving that I quickly learnt to
ignore these idiosyncrasies. I am still at a loss to understand in any
way why people want to risk their lives climbing Everest, but along the
way I learnt a whole lot of information about climbing, the risks
involved and about the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The last few
chapters particularly held me totally, as the boys found bodies of
failed climbers along the last part of their ascent, while working
through for themselves their motives in doing the climb. Boys
particularly will enjoy this rather long read (246p) and there is a web site where they can learn
more about the author.
Fran Knight
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Consulting, 2007